Oh my friend you haven't changed
You're looking rough and living strange - Don't Look Back Into The Sun, The Libertines.
Adam paced the halls of MCU, he had been in Gordon's office for nearly the whole day giving witness accounts, descriptions of Edie and all the details he could muster about her. They had pressed him for questions about her relationship with the Joker but he hadn't known what to say, the rumours he had heard of them in Arkham couldn't have been true, he'd told himself. The story varied from each person, one had said that they had kissed in the middle of the halls, another said she had only been checking him for bruises. Either way, he didn't like the sound of any stories.
He'd decided not to tell Jim Gordon about the rumours, instead he'd played dumb. Insisting that she was his psychologist and nothing else, Gordon had thanked him for his time and told him he would be in touch, but suggested he stick around for the next few days, even implying that he train to join the force, he said he'd gladly take him on as an apprentice. Adam had chuckled at that, he knew Gotham was running short of policemen, but he didn't realize quite how low they were. He told Jim he'd think about it, and the older man gave him his signature kind smile.
They were treating Edie's case as a kidnap, he'd phoned her parents and brother, and just as he had expected, they had erupted into panic.
Phonecalls were being made here and there by her brother, who was by no account on the straight and narrow. He still worked for the job, and knew more about The Joker than he would like to admit. That much Adam could tell, but still, he didn't say a word.
He had more important things to worry about, first on his list was to get home and have a long think about what he was going to do now.
She felt the bed springs creak as she was jolted up from her dream, clutching her head as she groaned and opened her eyes. At the foot of the bed was the Joker, staring at her intently as he removed his jacket,
"Wake up, sleeping beauty." He said in a sing-song voice, grinning.
She groaned once more, wiping her hand over her forehead as she sat up, straightening out her dress as the sheets pooled around her waist. Her make-up was flaking from her eyes and her hair was a mess, her hands felt clammy and her mouth was dry.
"You hungry?" He asked, stretching his legs out as he stared at her,
She shook her head, lifting her hand up to feign a yawn before she finally spoke, "No."
"Good." He cackled, "We haven't got anything here anyway."
Edie rolled her eyes and threw the covers off her completely, swinging her legs over the edge of the bed, she felt his eyes on her and shuddered, shrinking within herself. Her back went rigid and she balled up her fists, digging her fingernails into her palms in an attempt to keep focused. One wrong move and she'd be dead before she could even say his name, let alone talk him out of it. She had forgotten who he was, forgotten what he had done, she had seen him blow Rachel Dawes sky high, he had killed more people than she could bear to imagine and her head began to swim. She felt herself growing faint, her head drooped and she stared at her feet, trying to block out the sound of his voice as he called her name.
She felt his lips against her ear and she opened her mouth to scream, but her attempt was cut short as he roughly cupped her cheek and whipped her around to face him.
"You're scared." He said, a smirk on his face and his eyes dark.
"No." She whispered, unable to move. She blinked a few times, clamping her mouth shut as his eyes bore into hers.
"You are, don't lie to me." He broke into a grin, his hands leaving her face.
Her eyes dropped to his hands, he delved into his pocket and pulled out a switchblade. She blinked in fear, readying herself to burst into tears and recite her plight to him, she whimpered as he lifted the blade and waved it in front of her face and proceeded to throw it to the floor, lifting up his hands to show he was holding nothing else. He leaned forward, hands on her shoulders as he spoke, "See? No knives, no guns, nothing to hurt you with." Joker leaned back, giving a sarcastic sigh as he studied her trembling form, this time she hadn't turned her gaze away from him.
"You don't have to be scared of me, ya' know. I told you I'm not going to hurt you." His voice cut through the silence and she nodded, loosening up as he slid towards her, "You're the last person who should be afraid of me. Well, right now anyways. I'm not going to hurt you, I don't have many boundaries, but, ah.. hurting women is one of those. 'Specially my own woman." He raised his eyebrows, arm sliding around her waist as he brought her closer to him. She found herself sinking into his arms, sighing as she felt him gently press his face against her own, she closed her eyes and leaned into him.
Her eyes snapped open, she drew in a quick breath and pushed him away, staring directly at him before she flicked her gaze to the plain and empty wall in front of her, biting the inside of her cheek.
She could hear his laughter echo around the room, risking a glance over at him, she saw him clutching his sides, grinning directly at her,
Next she felt his hands on the small of her back and he began pushing her upwards, getting to his feet once she was stood on her own,
"C'mon." He pushed at her back and she hissed, looking over her shoulder at him, he frowned and grabbed hold of her wrist, pushing past her and began to drag her towards the door,
"Where are we going?"
He turned, back lazily running his eyes over her now skewed dress, "You really want to be walking around like thatin front of all my, uh men?" He snapped, pointing at the straps to her dress that had been ripped during the break out from Arkham, falling down on one shoulder to expose her bra.
She looked down, eyes growing wide as she held her dress up with her free hand, hissing at him "Why didn't you tell me it had been ripped?"
He shrugged his shoulders turning around. He kicked the door open and pulled her out.
As soon as they had stepped through the door his demeanour changed, instead of storming around, throwing dirty looks at her he became calm, his grip on her wrist tightened as she took a deep breath.
The metal staircase clanked as they trudged down it, none of the men paid any mind to them, carrying about their jobs. She couldn't quite see what they were doing, there were only three or four in the room but she was dragged along to quickly to catch a glimpse. She took a look at the Joker's face, his gaze was focused directly in front of him.
She realized why he had slipped back into the indifferent personality she often saw on the news. If he was indifferent, he regained complete control. No one would cross him, no one saw any emotion, he became the Joker in every sense of the word. No feelings to betray him, she knew she couldn't make a move out of turn when he was like this, if she did then she would break the equilibrium of his whole existence. Then he really would give her something to be scared of.
She bit her tongue to stop her from saying anything, and tried her best to keep up.
He pushed open a door, revealing a small room filled with boxes.
He pulled her inside and then let go of her wrist, pushing her into the middle of the room as he leaned behind her and closed the metal door. He ripped open the top of a battered cardboard box, pulling out an old collared dress. He threw it at her, clapping lazily when she caught it in time.
Edie shook out the dress, holding it up in front of her. Squinting, she ran her eyes over the garment. She had seen it before, and her breath caught in her throat. It was her own dress from her teenage years, she thought she had lost it years ago. Mistakenly thrown it away, or even lost it at the laundrette. She dropped her arms, the Joker was leaning against a stack of boxes, arms folded over his chest as he watched her,
"Where did you get this?" She asked, her voice coming out in barely a whisper as her eyebrows knotted together
He shrugged his shoulders, pulling out a knife from his pocket and began inspecting his fingernails.
"Why?" Her voice was growing louder, no longer just a whisper,
"To remind me of you."
"Really?" She smiled, taking a step forward towards him, about to hold out her arms and beckon him to her. The idea that he had taken one of her possessions just to be reminded of her made her heart flutter, and then sink once she realized what a monster he had become. The idea that he, The Joker, mass-murdering psychopath with a taste for theatricals, kept her clothes to remind him of her face made her skin crawl, and the idea of Jack loving her that much was a bit ar fetched even for her and all her fantasies.
"No. Picked up the wrong bag in the heat of the moment."
There went her hope, there was no way she had even crossed his mind, he was a terrorist, a crazed murdering sociopath, not a loving husband, she let go of the breath she didn't even know she had been holding as he began to cackle, eyebrows raising as he took in her frown, "Hey, hey, hey. Don't get upset." He flicked his hand up and pointed at the dress, "Get changed."
"Not in front of you." She spat, causing him to smirk and lift his hands in the air,
"Fine, fine. I'll turn around." He slowly turned around, and only when she was sure he couldn't see her did she slip her now ripped dress over her head,
"I've seen you in, uh.. less clothing before, anyway."
She threw the dress at the back of his head, hurrying to put the other one on before he could turn around and threaten her.
She was surprised it still fit her, and so was the Joker. He couldn't tell if she had lost weight or put it on, she'd always been skinny. Too skinny for his liking, but that both wasn't and was her fault. She barely ate as an adult, and as a teenager she didn't eat at all. When she did, she'd go to any lengths to get rid of it. He couldn't count the amount of times he'd held her hair back, arm wrapped around her waist as she cried, throat stinging. Sometimes blood would come up, at those times he would hold her late into the night as she cried into his shoulder. Her parents had pushed her to get help, and thankfully she had. But since he left she found herself unable to stomach food once more, blaming the reasons he had killed himself all on her appearance. As he stared at her now he could tell what had gone through her mind, but he felt no guilt.
He picked the dress up from the floor, "I'll, uh, be keeping that for later." He grinned, making her open her mouth in disgust before he silenced her, throwing the dress into a box before he picked it up, once again kicking the door open. He whistled for her to follow him like a dog, smacking his lips together, he let out a loud and brief laugh when she followed him without a second thought.
"Where are we going?" She mumbled, wrapping her arms around herself as they walked out into the cold air.
"I told you, we aren't staying here."
She nodded, following him to one of the vans.
"But where are we going?" She asked louder as he walked behind her, draping his jacket over his jacket around her shoulder that he'd retrieved from the box he had been holding.
"Just get in the fucking van, woman." He shoved her towards the white vehicle and she pulled open the door, clambering into the passenger seat as he slid behind the wheel.
They had been driving deep within the Narrows for a while now, she recognized none of the buildings and shops they had passed and instead chose to sink down in her seat, not speaking a word.
The Joker hadn't spoken, instead he kept his focus on the road. Not bothering to even spare her a glance.
Joker pressed his foot down on the brake, slowing the van to a halt outside a large, and completely dilapidated office block. It was hidden deep within a cluster of warehouses and factories.
"Get out." He grunted, unlocking the door and jumping down from his seat.
Edie pushed open the door, sliding out of her seat and onto the ground, wandering over to the front of the building, "It looks.."
"It looks what?" Snapped the Joker from behind her, making her jump. He snickered, pointing towards the door and ushering her forwards,
"C'mon, get inside. It's cold out here and I want my jacket back."
She nodded hurrying towards the beat up door, she pushed it open with force.
Coughing as soon as she stepped into the dreary hall, the Joker scooped her up in his arms, muttering something about her being too slow and began climing the hundreds of steps to the top of the building. Not resting once until they had reached the top floor.
The door swung open as he nudged it with his foot, still carrying Edie as he walked inside. He dropped her onto the lone couch and loosened his tie, dropping his gaze down to Edie,
"Are we going to be staying here?" She piped up, looking directly at him
"Yeah, for a while. Well, you will be anyway. I have to go and uh, do some work.." He grinned, trailing off as he began to walk back towards the door. She frowned, and without thinking launched herself up from her seat, crashing into him from behind, he spun around as he felt her impact and held her at arms length, only letting go once she wriggled in his arms, stepping forward, she threw her arms around his neck and pressed her face into the crook of his neck, inhaling his scent. He draped his arms around her waist, and pressed a kiss to her head. And with that, he dropped his arms from around her and slipped his hand into his pocket, grabbed Edie by the hair and pressed his nose against hers. She let out a low hissing noise when she felt the metallic sting of his knife against her throat.
She caught her breath, and shut her eyes tightly. She didn't dare to make the wrong move, she'd obviously upset him.
She knew she shouldn't have touched him. Why did she always have to follow her instincts? Why was she still imagining Jack?
She was a trained psychiatrist, she should know better than this. She should have more common sense than this.
Her inner monologue was interrupted when she felt the coldness of the blade leave her bare skin, opening her eyes slowly she saw The Joker's own deep, almost black eyes staring at her own. Scrutinizing her as if he could hear what she was thinking, as if he could tell that she was disappointed in herself.
"Don't wait up." He mumbled, and shut the door with a slam. Leaving her alone in the strange room.
CoconutMigration: Yes! haha, the whole story is actually based off the song, it's where I got my inspiration. It doesn't seem very much like it now, but all in due time ;)
Marown: This is going to sound terribly cliche, but I actually got the inspiration from Michelle Williams (and the lovely Edie Sedgwick, too!) Since she was effectively Heath's long-term partner throughout nearly all of the filming, I had a conversation with someone and they thought it was hilarious how if Heath ever went home from set dressed as the Joker, there'd be little Michelle Williams there with her pixie hair and indie credibility and it would just be adorable.
But I got a lot of direct inspiration from Edie Sedgwick, but Michelle also played her in a film about Bob Dylan! It's called I'm Not There, and it's fabulous. I really recommend it, Heath's in it too!